David Nalle is the founder of The Scriptorium and is our
lead designer of original fonts and adapter of historical
source material. Dave got his start in calligraphy when
he was a child, studying old manuscripts and duplicating
the lettering he liked. In college he paid expenses by
lettering bizarre things, including signs for fraternity
parties and even pledge paddles. His typographic
education began with an apprenticeship at Applewood
Books (www.awb.com), a specialty reprint press in Boston. There he
learned to set metal and wood type and took courses
in Compugraphic typesetting. After graduating from
Franklin & Marshall College, Dave pursued a career in
publishing, including editing small magazines like What's
Next, Liberty and Abyss, and working in game and book
design. He moved to Austin in 1982 and attended graduate
school at the University of Texas, studying Medieval History,
including extensive work in Paleography, Codicology and
Medieval literature. In 1991 Dave started designing fonts
based on his own hand lettering from old magazine titles, hand
lettered signs and maps. In 1992 he released the first of these
crude but unusual designs as shareware fonts through America
Online. The enormous success of his first shareware font based on a
historical typeface (Kelmscott, from Morris' Troy font) convinced
him there was a market for his typographic work, and led to the
creation of the Scriptorium as a commercial outlet for his
type designs. Since that time he has produced scores of completely
original fonts, plus a huge selection of fonts based on historic type
and unique hand lettering, creating the backbone of the Scriptorium
collection. Dave now lives in Manor Texas with his wife Patricia,
his daughter Caroline, two dogs, a cat, a goose and four ducks. He
enjoys swimming, disc golf and tennis and teaches the occasional college
history course as well.
William Morris was born in 1834, attended Marlborough College and later Oxford where he
studied Medieval history. In 1861 he founded the design firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner and Co., specializing in the production of original furniture, fabric and
architectural designs. During this period Morris began hand-lettering and decorating manuscripts
of his own poetry and translations from the classics in a Medieval style as gifts for friends. From this hobby
came the formation of the Kelmscott Press which began publishing complete illustrated and decorated
books, including the famous Kelmscott Chaucer. Morris designed the original typefaces used in
these books, including Troy and Golden, hand-drew titles and borders and hired sympathetic artists like Edward Burne-Jones to
do the illustrations. He also dabbled in painting, creating several powerful works and influencing the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Morris was one of the first modern designers to integrate art, decoration and
typography to produce books in which every page was essentially a unique work of art. Morris was also a prolific poet and author, credited as the father of modern
fantasy, his charming poetry has an enduring romantic quality, and his translations of classic works from Latin and Old Norse are still considered among the
best. He is probably
the most influential design artist of the 19th century, influencing entire schools of art for generations after his
era. Scriptorium fonts based on Morris' designs include True Golden, Kelmscott (based on Troy), Morris
Black Letter, Chaucerian Initials, Morris Initials and the forthcoming Morris Manuscript font.
Arthur Rackham was born in 1867. He began drawing at an early age and trained with Herbett Dicksee and
then later at the Lambeth School of Art, while working at the Westminster Fire Office as a clerk. By the
1890s he had had several watercolor exhibitions and was selling illustrations to magazines frequently enough
to leave his job and embark on an artistic career full-time. By the end of the 1890s his work had moved
increasingly away from journalistic illustration onto more fanciful themes and children's book illustration.
Among his most recognized illustrated books are Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Midsummer Night's
Dream, Irish Fairy Tales, Rip Van Winkle and Undine. Rackham is probably the most recognized and
emulated children's illustrator of all time. Rackham's mature work was unusual in his focus on not just
illustrating, but decorating the books he worked on. His most notable works include hand lettered titles,
decorative marginalia, hand-drwan headers and borders, as well as color plates. Scriptorium fonts based on
Rackham's work include Rackham and Rackham Italic based on his distinctive title lettering, plus numerous
art fonts based on his decorative marginalia.

Alphonse Mucha was born in Moravia in 1860. He began his artistic career painting theatrical
scenery and doing murals for public and private buildings. In 1885 he began a course of study
at the Munich Academy of Art and then moved to the Academie Julian in Paris. During a long
career in Paris he took commissions for illustrations, portraits and decorative projects, but
became most famous for his poster designs for plays, particularly under the patronage of Sarah
Bernhardt in the 1890s. The success of his posters led to a commercial career in decorative
design for commercial and advertising products. Eventually Mucha branched out into other
areas, including jewelry design, portraiture and a brief career teaching art in New York. In 1910
Mucha returned to Prague to work on nationalistic art, including remarkable murals, postage
stamps, stained glass and bank notes. The Scriptorium's Mucha fonts are mostly based on the unique
stylized hand lettering found in his theatrical posters. The names are derived from the names
of the productions which his art promoted, such as Hyacinth based on the poster for
Princess Hyacinth, Samaritan from the poster for La Samaritan and our forthcoming Gismonda
based on the poster for the play of the same name.

Michael Scarpitti has become one of the most prolific
designers of fonts based on Latin inscriptions in the
world. He became interested in Latin inscriptions as
source material after seeing Carol Twombly's Trajan
font. He has recently branched out into fonts based
upon medieval manuscripts with his Pontifica, which
derives from a 12th century British manuscript. Mike
has designed more than 20 typefaces based entirely on
ancient historical materials. In high school, Mike began his career in photography,
in which he has excelled. Mike graduated from Ohio
State University with a degree in philosophy. He has
pubished scholarly articles about translation problems
in the journal Semiotica. Mike enjoys playing sports, especially tennis and soccer.